Thank you so very much, Ian, for taking the time to share the passion you have for your craft with the rest of us. Your knowledge, experience and advice is incredibly valuable to newbies like me, as well as to more knowledgeable folk, no doubt. Generous people like you are a real blessing and a treasure. Best wishes for many healthy, bountiful, and profitable years ahead!!
KF - you are so right! We are lucky to have folks like Ian to share valuable knowledge and experience with us. I wish I had been exposed to more specific farmers and paid more attention to the stories and knowledge passed on from the ones I did have exposure to. We are blessed with this medium to learn from successes and failures of experts in all kinds or areas of expertise. I appreciate Ian as well!
Your comment on your flashback clip about having a reefer and it still works made me think of /remember this. If it does go down and you vang get it repaired easily, I've heard of guys Yost will use the partitioning walls to reduce the area, then they will let liquid nitrogen evaporate in the area to freeze it. Or any safe liquid you can get that has a super low evaporation point. Dry ice could work also but you would have to air it out good before you climbed in to get to your gear.
God dog It seems this time of the year we see you playing in the snow. I must say you are an expert with that snow shovel. I get cold watching you playing that stuff. Lol Enjoy your videos
Great video but heck, so cold in Canada. I throw the gear into a freezer for a week or so and then store the frames in insect proof tubs. Kills SHB and wax moth but in Australia, the freezer is a substitute for your winters. Cant believe the temperatures, we have the flip side. Damned long, hot summers with all the SHB control issues. We've got pretty good down under at controlling the SHB and use multiple approaches all at once.
Hey Mark, if you're in Georgia, look into federal auction sales. You can get a -80 freezer from the CDC, Emory U, Georgia Tech, etc. for as little as $50. Freeze them about 12 hrs, then wrap them in plastic and add some moth crystals. They'll be good until spring in your garage or basement but not outside where mice can nibble a way in. Be sure to air them out overnight before you put them on a new hive!!
Thanks for the Good Info the question I have is when you are ready to put the frozen pest-free frames back in do you need to De-Frost them first how do you do that and when do you know the frames are ready
Yes you did the right thing we use Pollen Traps as a alternative income product and you just shoved the problem of space. I’ll be looking for a used refrigerator Truck to use in the season. You have to present them while the honey flow is on or nearly on. Great amounts of money can be made by use interface seed clears from the early 1920’s that work well on cleaning pollen.
What do your bees for the winter? Do you ship them to warmer climates? I live in Ely Nevada .. we also have extremely cold winters and I’m trying to fingute out how I’m going to keep my bees alive …. Thanks for you videos
Ian, your videos are always informative. Wax moths are disgusting pests and a real problem if they’re allowed to take hold! As well, mice are a big problem, but there are other solutions besides sticky boards, which are not ‘kind of cruel” but actually extremely cruel and inhumane and should be abolished. Poison is also cruel as it is painful and slow. Snap traps are generally quicker and more humane but must be checked frequently to ensure that the trapped mouse is actually dead. The best way to prevent mice from damaging hives and equipment is to ensure that even the tiniest holes are sealed. An apiary of your size makes this a task which is far easier said than done, I know, but mice are sentient creatures which feel pain just like we do and are only looking for food and shelter just like we do; we are sharing their world and therefore have no business killing them in a way that’s just convenient for us.
Here in California we use phostoxin tablets inside of a decommissioned refrigerated cargo container. Put the tablets in a metal container and close and lock the door. Kills everything including the mice.
Great information Ian! Speaking of mice... The evil rodents often move into my hives in autumn. The bees sit on pallets at the edge of a 5 acre hayfield. I’ve trained the dog to sniff for them at which point we dismantle the hive so she can kill them. I wonder if you’ve suffered the same problem and what the most time efficient remedy might be?
Killing mice is not cruel if it keeps them out of the bee equipment. I've had them a few years ago in a few boxes when I didnt get the mouse guards on earlier in the fall. It snowed about 6" here today in west central Wisconsin and we are going to get 2-4" more tomorrow. I'm assuming that your talking celcius temp? We were -20 here for a week but that is farenheit. Keep up the good videos.
I recently asked you if you replace very old BLACK brood comb, when & how you cut out the frames for the bees to renew comb that the queen needs to lay in. Do the brood cells get smaller inside after many years of hatching by a build up of chrysalis skins ?
Can you repeat the bucket feeder, ordered buckets & screened plugs from Betterbee are they sturdy enough to hold plug in the lid without pushing it out?
I got shit stacked in 3 county's now lol . Getting bad almost bought more shit this fall then thought hmmm maybe I'll wait till I fill what I got first
Not judging you for using them, but I’ll never use a glue trap again. I once made eye contact with a mouse stuck in a glue trap and that awful image has never left me.
Yes, they ate through. in 2018-19 I did okay in bags and wintered them ove in a shed by the hives. I just did it to bags around 7 of my boxes (summer 2019) and lost them all. "tragedy" ... but didn't have that issue last year. LAST year they tore up several hives. Have asked about cycling in the freezer 1 wk/month. I've asked about PBA and paramoth. Any thoughts?
The way I "protect & save my drawn comb" is ... melt it...I give up/gave up. The moths always get it. Melt it and be done with it. Kinda sad..but...dang moths!
Lmao it’s cruel but it works. I think cruel is me poisoning the rats I used to have in my pole barn that would eat my baby quail. We are supposed to dominate nature the Bible teaches. So you’re doing the right thing! :)
